Raggedy Ann and Andy, Betty Boop, Poe’s Raven, and more—a kaleidoscope of classic cartoon characters come to life on the big screen! Journey back to the 1930s and 1940s via the colorful, musical, comical world of pre-digital, hand-drawn animation, featuring classic works by Max and Dave Fleischer, George Pal, and others, newly preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive with support, in part, from ASIFA-Hollywood. (35mm, color & b/w, approx. 70 min.)

Scroll down for descriptions of about each film, with running times.

*All ages are welcome. Feel free to take a break with infants and toddlers in the theater lobby.

Family Flicks Film Series

UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Hammer Museum have teamed up for a matinee screening series of new and classic family-friendly films from around the world.

Details about each film presented

Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy (1940)The homespun charm of Raggedy Ann and Andy, the beloved characters conceived by turn-of-the-century illustrator and author Johnny Gruelle, ably transposed to the big screen by Max and Dave Fleischer who spin a charming origin story for the iconic ragamuffins in this Technicolor fairy tale. Brought to life in Glad Rags Doll Factory in the mythical Ragland, Ann and Andy are separated while on their way to the Castle of Names until the Camel with the Wrinkled Knees comes to the rescue.

A Cartoon Travesty of the Raven (1942)In the Fleischer Bros.’ animated take on Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven, the titular bird still comes “rapping and a tapping” at the door but rather than a harbinger of inconsolable grief, he’s selling vacuum cleaners. That is until the big bad wolf tempts him to rob the joint instead. Add in the lord of the manor, a kilt-wearing Scottie dog, and things go off the literary rails pretty quickly as the anarchic fun ramps up. —Paul Malcolm

By the early 1930s, John, Herbert, Harry and Donald Mills, a.k.a. The Mills Brothers, had established themselves as one of the biggest acts on radio with their unique four-part harmonizing accentuated by their uncanny ability to imitate musical instruments with their voices. They made their big screen debut in Paramount’s The Big Broadcast (1932) before being featured in three Fleischer Bros. “Screen Song” shorts, including this one, which invites you to follow the bouncing ball and sing along with their rollicking rendition of “Dinah.”

Betty Boop, lost in the Klondike, found! Honest Love and True is one of two Boops for which all the original elements were lost long before the cartoons were sold to television in the 1950s. Betty is a Klondike saloon singer and as usual, the moustachioed proprietor tries to take her boop-oop-a-doop away, only to be foiled by a friendly member of the RCMP. Sadly, we can't hear Betty's booping as the 16mm copy discovered in the Netherlands by animation historian Dave Gerstein lacks a soundtrack.

A rascally, truant fish who refuses to pay attention in class learns his lesson quick when he’s snapped up on a fisherman’s hook and barely escapes in one piece. The Fleischer Bros.’ bouncing bonhomie on full display here helped earn them an Academy Award nomination for this charming short subject.

35mm, Technicolor, 8 min. Director: Dave Fleischer. Restored from the 35mm nitrate successive exposure negative and the 35mm nitrate track negative by The Academy Film Archive and UCLA Film & Television Archive in cooperation with Paramount Pictures.

Rhythm in the Ranks (1941)

A toy soldier is drummed out the of the service after a beautiful ice skater catches his eye on duty but when the Screwball army declares war, the soldier gets another chance at redemption—and romance. Whimsical in tone and set to the syncopated sound of The Raymond Scott Quintette’s “The Toy Trumpet,” Rhythm in the Ranks earned George Pal, employing his Puppetoons stop-motion animation technique, his first Oscar nomination for Best Short Subject.

35mm, color, 10 min. Director: George Pal. Restored by The Academy Film Archive and UCLA Film & Television Archive in cooperation with Paramount Pictures from the 35mm nitrate original successive exposure picture negative and track negative.

All Hammer public programs are free and made possible by a major gift from an anonymous donor.

Generous support is also provided by Susan Bay Nimoy and Leonard Nimoy, Good Works Foundation and Laura Donnelley, an anonymous donor, The Samuel Goldwyn Foundation, and all Hammer members.

The Hammer’s digital presentation of its public programs is made possible by the Billy and Audrey L. Wilder Foundation.

Hammer Kids is made possible through the generosity of the Anthony & Jeanne Pritzker Family Foundation.

Hammer Kids also receives support from friends of the Hammer Museum’s Kids’ Art Museum Project (K.A.M.P.), an annual family fundraiser. Additional funding is provided by The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation.